Cutting Board Question

[sadievan]

The other day I was watching a youtube video where the person cleaned his cutting board with vinegar. I had never heard of this. Does vinegar sanitize the cutting board?

Carol

[Selkie]

Not that I'm aware of. Salt, on the other hand, is an anti-bacterial inhibitor, and what I use to clean my wooden cutting board.

[CharlieD]

Vinegar is a good cleaning solution period. So why not use it on the cutting board?
What kind of board was it?

[boobuster]

Yes, I wanted to let you know that vingear does really do a good job cleaning a cutting board.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by Selkie

Not that I'm aware of. Salt, on the other hand, is an anti-bacterial inhibitor, and what I use to clean my wooden cutting board.

I did not know that about salt either. Thanks.

Carol

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by CharlieD

Vinegar is a good cleaning solution period. So why not use it on the cutting board?
What kind of board was it?

It was a wooden cutting board.

We use vinegar and water to clean our hardwood floors, but I never thought to use it on my cutting board.

Carol

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by boobuster

Yes, I wanted to let you know that vingear does really do a good job cleaning a cutting board.

Thanks,

Carol

[Selkie]

After doing a little research, vinegar and water, 1 to 5 solution works, as does, salt, and for extra santizing, hydrogen peroxide, 1 to 1 or bleach and water 1 to 5, can also be used.

[roadfix]

Also be sure to periodically condition the board with food grade mineral oil.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by Selkie

After doing a little research, vinegar and water, 1 to 5 solution works, as does, salt, and for extra santizing, hydrogen peroxide, 1 to 1 or bleach and water 1 to 5, can also be used.

Thanks for that info Selkie. I do spray my cutting boards with bleach/water (1T/16oz) periodically. I keep a spray bottle of the bleach/water under my sink and every so often I spray my sink, sponges, dish drainer, etc.

Carol

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by roadfix

Also be sure to periodically condition the board with food grade mineral oil.

I do that. In fact I just did it tonight. I just recently learned about doing this.

[suzyQ3]

We keep a spray bottle of a vinegar/water solution under our sink just for the purpose of periodically sanitizing our wood cutting board. I am more comfortable with that than using bleach on it.

[sparrowgrass]

A hundred years or so ago, I worked for the Humane Society in Lexington, KY. We had a disease problem in our cattery, and we had to sanitize everything multiple times a day. The vet told us that the chlorine bleach/water solution that we used had to be made fresh every other day--it lost its effectiveness over time.

[ChefJune]

Originally Posted by roadfix

Also be sure to periodically condition the board with food grade mineral oil.

What is "food grade mineral oil?" any brands to recommend?

[Andy M.]

Originally Posted by ChefJune

What is "food grade mineral oil?" any brands to recommend?

The cheapest place to find it is in the laxative section of your local drug store. Same stuff but costs a lot less than the stuff in the kitchen stores.

[oneoffour]

On our wooden boards another step that I do as it starts to show to much knife work is to resurface the board. Using the end of the meat clever or the cleaver edge draw it across the surface like a cabinete makers scrape. Stay with the grain and it will take off a fine amount of wood fiber. The sawdust is as soft as 10x sugar and the board surface doesn't show as cut. The new face of the wood is bare and pharmacy grade mineral oil is what I then apply. The boards are about 12 years old and they may get this done once a year yet it is hard to tell they have been shaved.

[oneoffour]

The knife that chews up the board the most is the serrated bread knife. If all the board had cut it was a paring or chefs knife I doubt that it would need surface touchup even once a year.

[Selkie]

Originally Posted by roadfix

Also be sure to periodically condition the board with food grade mineral oil.

I asked a friend of mine, who is a cabinet maker and the maker of my cutting board, about this. His recommendation was to not use any conditioning oil on a cutting board. Oil is used to moisturize wood that is in a position to dry out and crack. A cutting board, if used and washed regularly, needs no added moisture or protection from drying out. Tannin, a chemical found naturally in wood, is an anti-bacterial and helps keep bacteria populations under control on the surface of the board. The presence of oil inhibits the release of tannin, and bacteria counts go much higher. Oil also keeps the wood surface soft and it wears away much faster and ends up in our food. Wood that has time to dry and become hard again, provides a better cutting surface.

[oneoffour]

Tannin is present in much greater quanities in open grain hard woods ie oak and ash. Both are unsuitable for contact with food as they are open grained. Bamboo is good for cutting boards but is a monocotoledionous wood not dicotolidonous and has no tannin at all. Beech is a closed grained wood with much lower tannin. Because it has no open grain it is the prefered wood for a cutting chopping surface as it has no open grain for food residue to get stuck in. Sure if your aim is to keep a perfect cutting board then a hard surface is great. However then marble or a granite surface kicks butt. However if your goal is to allow your knives to slice with the lowest wear to their edge please may I ask why not the softer surface of the raised grain of mineral oiled wood? Washing with soap and water on a surface that has been oiled has been effective enough for me that I have had no food contamination due to cutting board bacteria in the past 40 years of cooking.

[kcbowie]

Originally Posted by sadievan

The other day I was watching a youtube video where the person cleaned his cutting board with vinegar. I had never heard of this. Does vinegar sanitize the cutting board?

Carol

I use salt